During his self-study, Prior blogged and posted a number of video diaries. He also reported feeling full all of the time and not being hungry for other foods. He eventually couldn't fit into his pants and struggled to bend over, likely due to the fact that he gained a whopping 23 pounds by the end of the month.

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And that's not all. Prior, a pretty fit man, boasted a total body fat of just 9% before his experiment began. However, at the end of the month, it jumped to 16% — a 65% increase. His blood pressure in the beginning was also normal (129/77), but at the end he was considered hypertensive with a BP of 143/96.

So, is soda the enemy? We checked in with our resident nutrition director, Jaclyn London, MS, RD, CDN, to get her thoughts. "Yes, drinking a lot of sugary soda is bad. But if you're eating an excess of 1,400 calories a day of anything, you're going to gain weight," she warns.

But what's really scary is that eating a mostly sugar diet leads to a higher gain of abdominal fat, which can increase your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. For women, the American Heart Association recommends limiting their daily intake of added sugars to 6 teaspoons. (They top it at 9 teaspoons for men.) And unfortunately, just one 12-ounce can of regular soda has 8 teaspoons, meaning if you have just one can of soda a day you're already above your max intake.

So while we applaud Prior's efforts to show the negative health effects of drinking lots of soda, it's more about lowering how much sugar is in your diet in general — no matter the source.